Does God Suffer?

Since the early twentieth century, and with fresh urgency after the Holocaust, a growing number of theologians have argued that God suffers within his own divine nature, in love and solidarity with those who suffer. Thomas G. Weinandy takes that consensus seriously and asks whether it can be reconciled with the traditional Christian understanding of God, which it plainly contradicts.

The book is a careful work of historical and systematic theology. Weinandy traces how the Church has understood God and suffering, and he mounts a sustained defence of the classical view without making light of the sin and evil that prompted the modern turn. It will suit students of doctrine, clergy and thoughtful lay readers who want a rigorous and serious guide to how a loving God relates to a suffering world.